By Bill Tremblay
Few people can say they truly dedicated their life to what they love, but Art Van Camp was one of them.
From an infant playing in the sandbox with toy construction machinery to a quasi-retiree operating his vintage dozer at HCEA Canada events, Van Camp’s numerous roles in the industry were not labour in the traditional sense; they were fulfilling a passion.
His dedication earned him a local reputation as a skilled operator and international respect from the heavy equipment and construction industries.
“Work was my hobby as well as my job. I never really thought of it as a job and I don’t really have any other hobbies,” Van Camp told Equipment Journal in 2019. “I did what I loved my entire working life.”
On Dec. 9, the construction and heavy equipment communities learned Van Camp, who was in his early 80s, had passed away.
“I lost a good dad, and we lost a good man,” his son Dave Van Camp said. “I’m really proud of him, and I’m proud to be his son, that’s for sure. He was an icon really.”
Since his childhood, Art Van Camp was captivated by construction and the machines used to get the job done. Throughout his life, Van Camp worked as an operator, a heavy equipment dealer, a Director of the Ontario Road Building Association (ORBA), a Director of the John Deere Dealership Association, a Director of the Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA) Canada, President of the Canadian Association of Equipment Distributors and a Committee Member of the Ontario Stone Sand and Gravel Association.
After retirement, he started his own consulting firm and returned to the operator seat on occasion at his son’s business, DVC Contracting.
“I’d always try to get him out to run the dozer or whatever. He was an operator. That’s what he wanted to do. He never wanted to stop,” Dave said.
In 2020, Dave Van Camp invited his father to ConExpo along with some of his younger employees from DVC Contracting.
“We met him at the show the first morning. He’s like, ‘come on, come on, come on.’ He had it all figured out,” Dave recalled. “These younger guys said to me, ‘Where did you find this guy? He’s running around here like a chicken with his head cut off.’ He knew about every second person he ran into. He was the one keeping everybody moving.”
The early days
LEFT: Van Camp as a toddler “operating” toy machines in his sandbox. RIGHT: A nine-year-old Van Camp operating a 1954 Allis Chalmers HD-5 crawler loader.
As a teenager, Van Camp began working at his family’s sand and gravel business in Port Perry, Ontario. It was there he developed a reputation as a dozer operator.
His skill level became so well known, customers would request him by name for their jobs.
After a few years in the operator seat, his passion for heavy iron caught the attention of a friend in equipment sales, and Van Camp was offered a job selling motor graders in Eastern Ontario. In his first year in equipment sales, he drove more than 186,000 km.
Van Camp Equipment
After attending ConExpo in 1975, Van Camp’s career changed direction. He was so impressed by John Deere’s booth he promised himself he would someday become a dealer for the brand.
Van Camp achieved that goal about 18 months after the show. Deere had an opening for a dealer covering the Hamilton and Niagara regions, and A.H. Van Camp Equipment was born in Stoney Creek, Ontario.
“He had such passion for customers and passion to take on that business. It was 24/7 for Art. He just threw everything he had into that dealership,” said Bart Brooks, who worked as Van Camp’s competitor at Crothers and later as his coworker at Nortrax.
“His product knowledge was second to none. And once you were a customer of Art’s, you were a customer for life.”
The creation of Ontrac
In 1998, A.H. Van Camp merged with Woodland Tractor and formed Ontrac Equipment Services Inc.
Ontrac began to acquire dealerships across Eastern Canada. The company grew to include 22 heavy equipment dealerships across Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. Deere acquired the network of dealerships in 2004, and the company became Nortrax Canada in 2008.
Van Camp became the Executive Vice President of Nortrax, where he worked until retirement in 2014. Brandt acquired Nortrax in 2019.
“Art was the John Deere guy,” said Don Switzer, Chief Operating Officer at Brandt. “All of the dealers are committed to the John Deere brand, but Art was next level.”
When Switzer joined Deere in 1985, Van Camp was already a company icon. Although Van Camp had achieved notoriety, he always had time for new faces within the company.
“He was one of the guys that would actually spend time with the new and younger people and help them understand the business,” Switzer said.
When Switzer joined Nortrax as Vice President and General Manager, he worked side-by-side with Van Camp and learned how he was able to achieve his reputation: high standards and a positive approach to solving any problem.
“Art was a master at handling difficult situations. No hill was too steep for Art. It did not matter what was going on. Art was going to climb that hill,” Switzer said.
“He was firm and fair and set high standards. He had high standards for himself and high standards for everybody else around him.”
In 2011, Brooks joined Nortrax as General Manager of the original Van Camp Equipment branches in Stoney Creek and Cambridge. After taking on the role, it became obvious that Van Camp’s enthusiasm was contagious.
“You could just see the distinct culture. It was still an Art Van Camp culture,” Brooks said.
Van Camp’s impact also extended to the manufacturing and corporate levels within John Deere. Brooks explained when Van Camp would visit the John Deere headquarters in Moline, Illinois, everyone knew him, right up to the CEO.
“Art was an icon. I would say he was one of the Top 5 impactful individuals in the heavy equipment industry,” Brooks said.
Dealer advocacy
Van Camp’s vast knowledge of heavy equipment operation also helped to fine tune products for John Deere Construction. Van Camp came up with the idea of establishing an advocacy group that would allow customers and dealers to provide input on new machines.
During a drive to Niagara Falls in 1985, he pitched the advocacy group idea to Jim White, who at the time was Senior Vice President of John Deere.
From there, Van Camp would contribute to the development of about 34 Deere machines. His last contribution to the advocacy group was working on the development of the 944K wheel loader released in 2015.
Van Camp’s extensive product knowledge stemmed from a passion for machines and a photographic memory. He was known as a “human Rolodex” for both machines and people.
“He would be able to tell you the serial numbers of the first machines he ever sold. If he knew you long enough, he knew your birthday and he would remember it,” Dave Van Camp said.
The John Deere Way
In 2005, Author David Magee published the book The John Deere Way, which highlights business lessons that can be learned from the company’s management principles and corporate values.
“Art is the only dealer in all of North America that is actually mentioned in that book,” Brooks said.
ORBA Hall of Fame
Van Camp (left) receives the ORBA Hall of Fame jacket by ORBA COO Bryan Hocking at the 2019 ORBA Convention.
In 2019, Van Camp’s achievements were recognized with an induction into the ORBA Hall of Fame.
Michael Rugeroni, who worked with Van Camp at Nortrax and competed with him at other dealers, nominated him to become the 23rd member of the Hall of Fame.
“The man lived and breathed construction equipment, from cranes to dozers to new products to loaders to excavators. He loved every aspect of the business,” Rugeroni said.
“There weren’t many people that knew more about equipment than Art Van Camp. People came to Art for advice on what to buy because he knew so much and he told them the truth.”
Rugeroni added Van Camp is one of possibly two Hall of Fame inductees from the equipment sales side of the business rather than contractors.
“It wasn’t because he was a good salesman,” Rugeroni said. “It was because he was all in. He was committed to the industry, the customers, the people, the employees and the product.”
